I missed Stone Roses eponymous debut album in 1989, but then, I was only 13. Two years later, in 1991, I was buying the NME and Melody Maker every week, listening to the Evening Session and discovering albums like Teenage Fanclub's Bandwagonesque, Nirvana's Nevermind, Primal Scream's Screamadelica, Massive Attack's Blue Lines and R.E.M.'s Out Of Time. What a year for music that was!
The fifth year common room was ripe for music tapes and I fell for the magical melodic guitar pop of The Stone Roses big time. Over a year or so, I bought up all their old 12-inch singles, also on 7-inch, CD and sometimes even cassette tape. I was hooked ... line and sinker.
The Stone Roses are the most perfect band I have ever fallen for. Their music, artwork, hair, clothes, personalities ... I bought the Live At Blackpool Empress Ballroom film on VHS and must have nearly worn it to death. How could a band be this cool?!
International, Continental - Ian Brown in Blackpool. Photo by Justin Thomas
Virginia Galleries in Glasgow had a shop that sold old music magazines, so I collected NME and The Melody Maker's that told of the Roses court hearings with their record label Silvertone.
Ah ... Silvertone. The label that promised so much. Following the release of Sally Cinnamon on FM Revolver in 1987, and after years of building a collection of songs, The Stone Roses were courted by several labels, most notably Rough Trade, who funded the recording of Elephant Stone, with Peter Hook on production duties.
However, the Roses, thanks to a slap up Italian dinner, signed an 8-album deal with Zomba Records, later transferred to Silvertone (a subsiduary). The Roses were able to buy the Elephant Stone tapes off Rough Trade as part of the deal.
The Silvertone years were golden ... pardon the pun.
- 1988 - Elephant Stone
- 1989 - the impeccable run of Made of Stone, She Bangs The Drums and the double a-side of Fools Gold / What The World Is Waiting For in 1989,
- 1990 - One Love in the July of a hot hot summer. This single was released on the back of the Roses playing Spike Island in May and Glasgow Green in June, the latter of which would be their final show for 5-years.
By now, the Roses had realised they had been ill-advised and hasty in signing their deal with Silvertone and they were trying to get out of it. Within a year, a period that halted the best band in the world in their tracks, the Roses were free and they signed to Geffen for a reported £1 million.
Silvertone, scuppered recordings when they appealed against the court decision to free the Roses. They also went on to release Adored, Waterfall and Resurrection as singles from the album. The court case, money, drugs, travel, deaths and births meant that it would be mid-1993 before work began properly on what would become The Second Coming. It eventually came out in December 1994.
Never Mind The Pollocks - photo by Kevin Cummins
Back to Turns Into Stone though ... another Silvertone cash in, although this was welcomed by fans - bringing together b-sides and non-album singles, it's an absolute gem of a compilation.
Reni's high-hat ushers in the sublime 12-inch version of Elephant Stone, then he is all over his drums, Mani comes in on bass (his first recording with the band) and Squire sprinkles chiming riffs like sugar over the top. Literally the icing on the cake. He places a cherry on top after a minute and 15-seconds later Brown yells break and his band take it up another notch. There is a break down and another build up, before finally Brown begins to sing, 10-seconds shy of 2-minutes.
The second half of the first verse contains lines that meant so much to me as a teenager ... and they do to this very day.
Dreaming 'til the sun goes down
And night turns into day
Reni is on fire, Mani holds the groove and Squire is free to flow. This is an incredible single and it is little wonder that Hooky was lined up to produce the album, only timings didn't fit ... eventually leading the Roses to John Leckie, which worked out rather well.
Seems like there's a hole
In my dreams
Or so it seems
Nothing means
Anything ... anymore
The Hardest Thing In The World was the b-side and had been played as early as May 1986. Merging the Roses harder sound from their earlier days with their growing feel and understanding for guitar pop, it's a glorious burst of energy, wrapped up in 2-minutes 43 seconds.
Searching for a perfect day
It never happens that way
Going Down is another gem from Squire and Brown's incredible songwriting streak of 1986-87. Melodic and melancholic, it's a real favourite of mine. I love the imagery in the lyrics, the tale of someone in love, lust and awe.
Penny's place a crummy room
Her dansette crackles to Jimi's tune
I don't care I taste Ambre Solaire
Her neck, her thighs, her lips her hair
And then of course the magical;
There she looks like a painting
Jackson Pollock's number 5
I really love the dreamy outro;
To look down on the clouds, you don't need to fly
I've never flown in a plane
I'll live until I die
Guitarist, songwriter, artist and dreamer - John Squire
The chiming guitar pop perfection of Mersey Paradise is one of the first guitar riffs I took the time to learn. Built around the D chord, Squire creates a chiming masterpiece and Reni is all over his kit - pounding, rolling and grooving. When Brown lets out an oh yeah before the final chorus, it is the sound of a singer in love with his band and music.
Standing Here is a real favourite of mine. I should be safe forever in your arms is a lyric that melts my heart every time I hear this song.
Starting with Squire conjuring glorious sounds from his guitar, the band then fall in behind him, Mani and Reni lock into a groove, with Reni shuffling effortlessly about the drums. Squire just sounds like he is improvising over the top of them, a beautiful jam. Listen carefully for Reni's stunning backing vocals at times.
I really don't think you could know that I'm in heaven when you smile
As a teenager Standing Here appealed to me more than any other song for a while. Lines like that described how I would feel every day if a girl I fancied smiled at me.
The breakdown into I don't think you think like I do (another amazing lyric) then leads to arguably the most beautiful 2-minutes in the Roses cannon.
Squire's guitar is just so considerate and melodic, Brown's whispered vocals are spine tingling, Reni is just soooooooo good. The outro is very arguably the most blissful moment in the Roses discography.
I could park a juggernaut in your mouth
And I can feel a hurricane when you shout
I should be safe forever in your arms
Pollocked - Photo by Kevin Cummins
Dating back to 1986, Where Angels Play was first played live in January 1987 and remained unreleased until Silvertone releases I Wanna Be Adored as a single in 1991. Brown is steadfast and defiant in his delivery of the lyrics, while the shimmering 60-second outro is sublime. This fades out and I wonder if there is a long version sitting in the vaults somewhere.
Simone is Where Angels Play backwards. A trick the Roses repeated several times to create trippy psychedelia.
I wrote a feature length blog on Fools Gold (12-inch version) HERE that included the intro - Fools Gold was (and is) the sound of Stone Roses at their peak, almost 10-minutes of funk groove via bass, beats, wah-wah guitar, samples and the coolest person in the world at the time on whispered vocals about friends searching for gold and ready to steal it off each other.... oh and the Marquis de Sade.
Later I would say - The beat and bass groove are in from the start, it's fresh, it's funky, it sounds like nothing 4 white boys from Manchester should be creating. But then things were changing dramatically in 1989, particularly in Manchester, a city embracing ecstasy and all kinds of music from Detroit to Ibiza - people wanted to dance and expand their horizons - international, continental.
Fools Gold on Top of the Pops
What the World Is Waiting For is a burst of guitar pop telling tales of religion, gold and greed, making it the perfect companion for Fools Gold that it was released alongside.
He loves his brother
He'd sell him for a fistful of gold
Things move up a notch to the outro;
Any time you want it, then it's there
All you gotta do is stop it on the corner and ask
Say hey, you don't live today
Stop the world, stop the world, I'm getting off
Riding in on some outrageous Squire guitar heroics, Mani and Reni fall effortlessly into a groove behind him, allowing Ian to come in with a hushed promise, sung in an almost menacing whisper.
Any time you want me
Any time at all
Any time you need me
All you gotta do is call
Mani and Ian at Spike Island
The bridge to the chorus is all kinds of trippy cool. Brown sings about being a dolphin who doesn't live in the sea, before the beautiful line you feel my flow and you flood my brain , slowing things down into a delicious groove ...
Show me your vision, your wild apparition
And sink to the depths of your soul
... before Squire delivers some star spangled riffs as the band hit the chorus;
One love, we don't need another love
One love, one heart and one soul
Reflecting on One Love in 1998, Ian Brown said "The chorus wasn't strong enough. We tried for an anthem. We wanted to cover all bases and ended up covering none."
After another run through the first verse and a slightly different bridge, the chorus is then extended, ending with a lyric that would become the title of their phenomenal Turns Into Stone compilation of non-album single and b-sides.
Your fruit's in season
And these feet fall surely sound
And what goes up must come down
Turns into dust, or turns into stone
Remarkably, all of the above (and more) is delivered in 2-minutes 45 seconds, leaving the Roses a full 5-minutes to play with on the 12-inch version. Mani's bass is central to the extended outro, allowing Squire ample room to play and Reni to jam along with some kind of sample/programmed beat.
The beat goes on - Alan 'Reni' Wren - a generational drummer
Tantalisingly, the song seems to have found another groove just as it ends. It could have gone on and on. The Roses look super cool in the video, playing and grooving as flames shoot up all around them.
Something's Burning is as fluid and trippy a song as the Roses produced. The first 70-seconds sound like the band just mucking around with programmed beats and some effects for inspiration, then Squire coaxes a gentle riff from his guitar and a whispered Ian Brown vocal comes in, singing proverbs through the first verse.
There is a lift into the chorus and I particularly love the flowing melody of the final line.
I can see the love and the hate in your eyes
Penny for the thoughts behind your disguise
What you gonna go and what you gonna day?
I'm not the only one believing there's an easier way
And then a little groove into the next section that ends with a classic Ian Brown line;
It doesn't pay to disorientate me
It doesn't cost to be someone
I am the vine
And you are the branches
I've said it before on this blog and I'll say it again. The Fools Gold and One Love b/w Something's Burning singles are a glimpse of where the Roses could have gone if they hadn't got caught up in legal wranglings. Can you imagine an album full of blissed out psychedelic grooves, jams and beats?
Turns Into Stone is a remarkable collection of songs and the album is a real favourite of mine. I've enjoyed revisiting it a few times to write this blog and hope that by reading it, you might be encouraged to stick it on too.
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